May 12th: Crossing into Queensland

May 12, 2024

Day 39 (Day 14 in Australia)

I didn’t sleep well last night. It was a bit hot in our room. I was up at 6:50 and went for an early morning walk. The streets of Gunnedah were deserted, even allowing for it being a Sunday morning (and Mother’s Day here). Not only quiet but pristine clean and SO wide.

Parakeet

Julie loves these gum(?) trees that seem to have been
stripped of their bark and sandpapered to a polish

Nice house in Gunnedah

We set off on the second of our five leg journey to the outback fairly early but first we detoured to a local park full of gum trees. Gunnedah is sometimes known as the ‘koala capital’ of Australia. We spent 15/20 minutes looking for them without luck. They don’t move much and are, apparently, hard to spot. We did, however, have fun watching some argumentative cockatoos squabbling over a perch.

The 436km (272 mile) drive to St George was about 5 hrs (without stops). The sky, initially overcast and providing some spots of rain, gradually cleared and became bluer as the day progressed. Some of the cloud formations were amazing, unlike any seen in England.

We drove past mile after mile after mile of cotton fields I didn’t realise what they were at first until Phil told me. Some still to be picked and others full of huge bails covered in multi-coloured plastic. I totally failed to photograph them but I suspect there may be more.

Some of the roads we drove along were the longest, straightest and flattest of the whole holiday. At one point we had to go off road on to gravel tracks, I think because it was our quickest route even though we were only going about 20mph and the car was sliding from side to side. Great driving by Mrs. Henderson, the only native Australian in the car.

Further along, Julie and I got to see our first hopping kangaroos. They weren’t hopping when we spotted them but in my excitement to photograph them, Carolyn stopped the car and I opened my door and off they went! Ah well there will be more! We’re told when we get deeper into Queensland we should see the big red kangaroos up to 6 feet tall as opposed to these 3 or 4 feet East Australian cousins. I’m still not sure if they are wallabies or not!!

I also failed to take a photo of some galah, pink and white parrot-like birds but they are everywhere. Tomorrow maybe!

We stopped for brunch at a little town called Moree right in the north of New South Wales. Very nice coffee should you be passing through on your way to the shops.

Notice the shop name

Aussie graffiti beats English graffiti

Morton Bay fig tree

Impressive memorial.
Some of these at home would be good.

Pressing on we (ie: Phil) saw our first emu of the day and then shortly afterwards a kangaroo was stood in the road in front of us. We slowed down obviously and got the camera apps up but Skippy hopped it PDQ.

Crossing the Barwon River at Mungindi we were at last in Queensland. The first sign we saw was this very clear warning. Apparently it is illegal to keep them. Very illegal it seems!

Bunny lovers, you have been warned!

Driving on, the vastness of this country makes itself apparent to you. Immense fields stretching as far as you can see in all directions. I did my best with this photo, taken from a car moving at 110kph, but it didn’t really convey the enormity.

We took a short detour off the route to the small town of Thallon to see some more silo art, as we had in Victoria a few days ago. This one was apparently used in an ad for all the silo art.

At a recreation park in Thallon

Emu eggs are black. I did not know this!

We arrived at our very comfortable motel in St George in good time for a lovely stroll along the banks of the River Balonne at St George, where we heard some great kookaburra laughing before an early dinner and some wine at the quirky art deco pub, The Australian Hotel.